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Curaçao Tourism Facts And Figures -Third Quarter Report 2015

WILLEMSTAD (CTB) -- If we may draw one overall conclusion from this third quarter’s facts and figures, it is that - as far as tourism markets are concerned - it pays off to spread the eggs over several baskets.

As a result, Curaçao can pride itself that its overall tourism picture is one of continued growth, in spite of a decrease of South American visitors and a decrease in overall stay over nights. The steady progress is mainly attributed to a growing flow of visitors from North America and Europe. An additional benefit is that, on average, visitors from the growing markets spend more per day than visitors from the shrinking market.

Arrivals

Overall, the number of arrivals in the third quarter of 2015 went up with 1%, compared to the third quarter of 2014. The number of overall stay over nights went down with 5% compared to 2014.

From a regional perspective, the number of visitors from North America (United States and Canada) increased with 19% in the third quarter. Together with a solid 8% growth of the European market (The Netherlands and Germany) and a more modest 4% growth of the Caribbean market, the increase more than compensated the 13% decrease of visitors from South America.

Top Three Markets

By far the highest number of tourists came from the top three markets: the Netherlands, Venezuela and the United States. Although that was also the case last year, the markets showed significant fluctuations.

The number of visitors from the Netherlands and the United States each grew with 10% in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the year before. On the other hand the number of visitors from Venezuela shrunk with 19% in the same period of time.

The Netherlands brought in the largest number of visitors in the third quarter of 2015, representing 33% of all arrivals combined. This market share has gone up with 3% compared to the year before. Venezuela brought in the second largest number of visitors, representing a market share of 19% and a decrease of 5% compared to the year before. Third was the United States with a market share of 12% representing an increase of 1%.

Top Five Markets

In spite of a considerably lower number of arrivals compared to the top three markets, Germany and Canada stand firm in the list of top five tourism markets. The number of visitors from Germany increased with 6% compared to the third quarter of the year before. That of Canada increased with 170%. With regard to the market share, Germany maintained its 4% while the US market share increased with 1% compared to the year before.

The overall upbeat development is due to a variety of factors. CTB, CHATA and MEO are committed to pursue a strong and steady year-round growth in cooperation with their tourism partners. Traffic from the United States has been developing positively since the start of the direct flights with JetBlue from New York. Canada keeps recording mounting growth since the year-round service from Toronto was launched.

By closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela, where new foreign currency measures restrained the Venezuelans’ travel opportunities, the three entities successfully expanded their marketing activities in growth markets like USA, Canada, Holland, Germany and Colombia.

Another strong factor regarding the third quarter performance is the continuous growth of foreign visitors to the Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival (CNSJF). In the three days leading up to the 2015 Festival, the number of visitors from Aruba increased with 273% compared to 2014. Arrivals from Colombia increased with 190%, from Surinam with 114% and from the US with 102%.